NOVAH Pro Clipper Review: Motor, Blade and Build Examined

By Elias Becker · Written and reviewed by a working barber · Updated September 2026 · 9 min read

What Are the NOVAH Pro Clipper's Specifications?

The NOVAH Pro Clipper is a cordless professional hair clipper built around a brushless motor running at 6,000 RPM standard and 7,000 RPM in turbo mode, housed in an all metal body, with an adjustable and replaceable blade set and a guard range from 1.5mm to 13mm.

That is the whole specification in one sentence, and the rest of this review explains what each of those choices actually changes in a haircut rather than on a box.

A specification only matters where it changes an outcome. A motor speed figure is meaningless on its own, because what matters is not how fast a blade moves in open air but whether it still moves that fast when it meets dense hair. So each section below takes one component and answers the same question: what does this do for the cut, and when would you notice it missing?

What Does the Brushless Motor Change?

A brushless motor uses electronic commutation instead of physical carbon brushes rubbing against a rotating contact. Three consequences follow, and only one of them is about speed.

It holds speed under load. This is the one that matters for the haircut. A clipper cuts by shearing hair between a moving cutter blade and a fixed comb blade. If the motor slows when the blade hits a dense patch, the blades stop shearing cleanly and begin pushing hair instead. Pushing is what you feel as snagging and tugging, and what you see afterwards as a patch that will not blend.

It runs cooler. There is no brush friction generating heat, so the blade stays comfortable against skin for longer and the motor is not cooking itself during a long session.

It does not wear out its own contacts. Brushes are a consumable by design; they erode and eventually the motor degrades. A brushless motor has no such part.

The turbo setting at 7,000 RPM is not a general purpose mode. It is for the moments when the blade is about to meet resistance it would otherwise lose ground to: dense hair at the crown, a thick patch above the ear, a bulk removal pass on hair that has been left long. Running it constantly is unnecessary and drains the battery faster.

Why Does an All Metal Housing Matter?

The blade assembly bolts to the housing, and blade alignment is measured in fractions of a millimetre. Anything that lets the housing flex lets the alignment move.

A plastic body flexes under hand pressure. In ordinary use you will not feel it happen, but the effect accumulates: the relationship between cutter and comb blade shifts slightly, and a clipper that was cutting evenly begins cutting fractionally shorter on one side of its own blade. That shows as a faint stripe you cannot fix by changing how you hold it.

All metal does not flex meaningfully, so the alignment you set is the alignment you still have months later. Metal also conducts heat away from the motor and blade rather than insulating it.

The trade-off is weight, and it is real. A metal clipper is heavier in the hand than a plastic one, and over a session past about half an hour you notice. If hand fatigue is your primary concern, that is a legitimate reason to choose a lighter machine, and no amount of alignment stability offsets it for you.

What Do the Guard Sizes Actually Cover?

The guard set runs from A at 1/16 inch or 1.5mm through 4 at 1/2 inch or 13mm, and critically it includes the lettered half sizes rather than only the whole numbers.

The half sizes are not padding. The jump between two whole guard numbers is roughly 3mm, and around 3mm is the threshold above which the eye reads a transition as a step rather than a gradient. The A and B guards sit between the whole sizes and give you a smaller increment to land in the middle of that gap, which is the entire mechanism of blending.

A set without half sizes forces every blend to be done by lever and angle alone. That is possible, and skilled barbers do it, but it is harder and far less forgiving on a first attempt.

Worth knowing how to read them: the number or letter is the guard's position in the set, and the measurement stamped on the metal plate is what it actually leaves behind. A 1 leaves 3mm, a 2 leaves 6mm. When a barber asks what number you want, they are asking for that plate marking, not for a length in millimetres, which is why the two systems are worth holding in your head together.

How Does the Adjustable Blade Set Work?

The blade set is adjustable and replaceable, and those are two separate advantages.

Adjustable means the distance between cutter and comb blade can be set deliberately. Moving the cutter closer lets the clipper cut shorter, which is what a bald fade requires. It also means that a blade knocked out of true, which happens if the clipper is dropped, is something you realign in a few minutes rather than something you live with.

Replaceable means the part that wears out is the part you swap. Blades are the consumable in any clipper: steel edges round off with use and a rounded edge folds hair instead of slicing it. On a machine with replaceable blades, a dull blade is a cheap part. On a sealed machine, a dull blade is the end of the clipper.

A note on zero gapping, since the adjustability invites it. Setting the blades extremely close cuts extremely short, but a blade that sits proud of the comb blade contacts skin. Zero gap deliberately, check it in good light, and only on a machine whose housing will hold the setting.

What Maintenance Does It Actually Need?

Every advantage described above degrades without two habits, and neither takes a minute.

Brush the hair out of the blade after every cut. Cut hair packs into the space behind the teeth, where it holds moisture against steel and forces the motor to work against the obstruction. That obstruction is heat, and heat is what shortens motor life. It is also the most common reason a clipper that cut well last month feels like it is dragging today.

Oil the blade before you put it away, not before you next use it. The order matters. Oil applied at the end of a cut protects the steel through however many weeks the clipper sits in a drawer. Oil applied at the start protects nothing that has already happened. Two or three drops along the cutting teeth, run the clipper for a few seconds to distribute it, wipe the excess.

On the cordless side, the practical routine is to charge after a cut rather than before one. A clipper charged the moment it comes off your head is ready whenever you next want it, and it removes the single worst failure mode a cordless machine has, which is discovering the battery is flat with half a head cut.

None of this is specific to this clipper. It is what keeps any clipper alive, and it matters more to how long a machine lasts than the price on it did.

Where Does This Clipper Fall Short?

NOVAH Grooming publishes this review and sells this clipper, so the limitations are specific.

It is heavy compared to a plastic clipper. The metal housing is the reason, and the weight is the cost of the alignment stability. There is no version of this trade-off where you get both.

It is cordless, which is a routine, not just a convenience. A corded clipper is always ready. This one requires you to remember, and a flat battery partway through a cut is worse than a cord ever was.

Most of its advantages are invisible to a casual user. Holding speed under load and stable alignment matter enormously for blending and barely at all for a guarded buzz at one length. If that is all you do, you are paying for capability you will not use, and we would rather say so.

It does not supply technique. A clipper that holds its speed removes one variable from blending. It does not know where the guideline goes. The first fade on any machine is still a first fade.

And the guard range stops at 13mm. That is the top of a number 4, which covers the great majority of clipper work but not longer scissor-over-comb lengths. If you want to leave significantly more than half an inch on top, that is a scissors job, and this clipper is not the tool for it.

Who Is This Clipper Actually For?

Buy it if you blend. Everything the specification buys converges on the moment two lengths have to meet invisibly, and if you are asking a clipper to do that, the difference is immediate.

Buy it if you cut dense, coarse or coily hair, where a motor losing speed under load is not an occasional annoyance but the normal condition. Buy it if you cut more than one person's hair, or cut often enough that a machine failing inside two years is a real cost.

Do not buy it if you cut at a single guard length every few weeks and have no interest in fading. A cheaper machine will give you the same haircut. That recommendation costs us a sale and it is still the right answer.

NOVAH Pro Clipper + Trimmer

A cordless clipper for the bulk of the cut and a trimmer for lineups, edging and detail work, sold together as one set.

View on Amazon

Frequently Asked Questions

What RPM does the NOVAH Pro Clipper run at?

The NOVAH Pro Clipper runs at 6,000 RPM in standard mode and 7,000 RPM in turbo. Turbo is intended for dense patches where the blade would otherwise lose speed, such as the crown or a thick section above the ear, rather than as a constant setting.

What guard sizes come with the NOVAH Pro Clipper?

The set runs from A at 1/16 inch or 1.5mm, through 1 at 1/8 inch or 3mm, B at 3/16 inch or 4.5mm, 2 at 1/4 inch or 6mm, 3 at 3/8 inch or 10mm, to 4 at 1/2 inch or 13mm. The lettered guards are the half sizes, and they are what make gradual blending possible.

Is the NOVAH Pro Clipper blade replaceable?

Yes. The blade set is both adjustable and replaceable. Adjustable means alignment can be corrected if the clipper is knocked out of true, and that the blades can be set closer for a shorter cut. Replaceable means a dull blade is a cheap consumable part rather than the end of the machine.

Can you zero gap the NOVAH Pro Clipper?

The blade set is adjustable, so the cutter blade can be moved closer to the comb blade for a very short cut. Do it deliberately and check the result in good light, because a cutter blade that sits proud of the comb blade will make contact with skin. The metal housing helps here, since the setting holds rather than drifting.

Is the NOVAH Pro Clipper heavy?

It is heavier than a plastic-bodied clipper, and that is a direct consequence of the all metal housing. The weight is noticeable in sessions beyond roughly thirty minutes. It is the cost of alignment stability, and if hand fatigue is your main concern it is a genuine reason to choose a lighter machine.

Is a brushless clipper motor actually better?

For blending, yes, and for a single-length guarded cut, barely. A brushless motor holds its speed when the blade meets resistance, which is what keeps the blades shearing hair cleanly rather than pushing it. That only matters where hair is dense, damp or coarse, or where two lengths have to meet invisibly.

Sources

1. NOVAH Pro Clipper product specifications, owner-confirmed motor figures
2. Guard measurements as marked on the NOVAH guard set
3. Milady Standard Barbering, on blade alignment, guard increments and clipper maintenance
4. NOVAH Grooming technique notes, compiled from working barbers
5. NOVAH customer review corpus, more than 11,000 Amazon reviews at an average of 4.6 stars

Related Reading

• What the Price of a Professional Clipper Actually Buys You
• NOVAH Clipper Review: What They Do Well and Where They Fall Short
• How to Blend Clipper Guard Lines Without Leaving a Shelf
• How to Do a Skin Fade at Home, Step by Step
• Where to Buy NOVAH Clippers